Radiation hormesis - A remedy for fear

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Jaworowski
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Radiation Hormesis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Personal Reflections ◽  
Nuclear Weapon Tests ◽  
Risk Assessment Methodology ◽  
Current Risk ◽  
Main Factor

Personal reflections on radiation hormesis for the past 50 years are presented. The causes of ignoring and rejections of this phenomenon by international and national bodies and by radiation protection establishment are analyzed. The opposition against nuclear weapons and preparations for nuclear war was probably the main factor in inducing the concern for adverse effects of low doses of ionizing radiation, a byproduct of activism against the nuclear weapon tests. UNSCEAR was deeply involved in preparation of the scientific basis for cessation of nuclear test, and contributed to elaboration of the LNT assumption, which is in contradiction with the hormetic phenomenon. However, this authoritative body recognized also the existence of radiation hormesis, termed as ‘adaptive response.’ The political and vested interests behind exclusion of hormesis from the current risk assessment methodology are discussed.

Performance Assessment Study of Indian Railways – Case of Low Efficiencies in Large Government Monopoly

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110255
Author(s):  
Sabyasachi S. Roy ◽  
Mukul Kulshrestha
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Rail Network ◽  
The Past ◽  
Assessment Study ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Financial Losses

Indian Railways is the world’s largest government-owned monopoly, annually carrying passenger numbers that surpass the global population. It is world’s fourth largest rail network after the U.S.A., China, and Russia, and is managed by a separate Ministry of Railways. The operating ratios have consistently been around 90% in the past several years, indicating that that the capability to generate operational surplus is low. Further, its expenditure on staff and their pensions has been increasing. Consequently, capacity growth is increasingly being funded through borrowings, which threatens to further worsen the financial situation. Thus, railway services in India are often perceived as being inefficient and unsatisfactory. However, this perception of inefficient services has no scientific basis as mid- and micro-level efficiency analyses of Indian Railways have never been carried out. This paper adopts a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based approach to evaluate the performance efficiencies of the 69 divisions of Indian Railways. Six models that deploy a range of performance indicators like operating expenditures, numbers of staff employed or passengers carried, freight carried, rail network length, and revenues generated have been employed to assess efficiencies. The results demonstrate the existence of significant inefficiencies that may possibly be attributed to lack of proper management, planning policies, and mis-governance, resulting in significant financial losses. The paper discusses these issues and the policy reforms needed in the developing country context, while suggesting some reforms that may lead to improved sector performances.

The Future of the Planetary Trust in a Kaleidoscopic World

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Edith Brown Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Resource Degradation ◽  
Shared Goal

Today, it is evident that we are part of a planetary trust. Conserving our planet represents a public good, global as well as local. The threats to future generations resulting from human activities make applying the normative framework of a planetary trust even more urgent than in the past decades. Initially, the planetary trust focused primarily on threats to the natural system of our human environment such as pollution and natural resource degradation, and on threats to cultural heritage. Now, we face a higher threat of nuclear war, cyber wars, and threats from gene drivers that can cause inheritable changes to genes, potential threats from other new technologies such as artificial intelligence, and possible pandemics. In this context, it is proposed that in the kaleidoscopic world, we must engage all the actors to cooperate with the shared goal of caring for and maintaining planet Earth in trust for present and future generations.

Development of Risk Assessment Methodology for Occupational Safety in Using Work Observation Technique

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Shinoda ◽  
Takashi Tanaka
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Occupational Accidents ◽  
Assessment Procedure ◽  
Assessment Methodology ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Walking Environment ◽  
Risk Assessment Methodology

It is a challenge to prevent an occupational accident in any industrial activities. The aim of this study is to improve the safety and reduce the risk of occupational accidents at shipyard through developing a risk assessment. This paper describes the concept and methodology of risk assessment for occupational safety and its application. The methodology introduces an effective and useful assessment procedure to construct the database based on the past occupational accidents occurred at shipyards. Quantitative methodology is developed to understand the unsafe working conditions and environment at the shipyard by the convenient handheld to collect the data with Information Technology. Some examples of effective hazard countermeasures are suggested and a feasibility study is conducted to improve a walking environment at shipyards.

scholarly journals PEMPROFILAN PELAKU TERORIS ANAK

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-139
Author(s):  
Saraswati Saraswati ◽  
Elsafira Maghfiroti Resyanta
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Behavior Motivation ◽  
Motivation Beliefs ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Speaking Style ◽  
Main Factor

The background of this study is to examine the profile of child terrorist and the motivation behind the crime of terrorism in children by using child development theory and sosial ecology theory. This research is a qualitative study using a phenomenology approach. The phenomenology approach aims to describe the meaning of the life experience of a terrorist child so that the level of belief or paradigm of the terrorist child changes, so to learn and understand it must be based on the point of view of a terrorist child as a subject who directly experiences the incident. The subject of this research is a child who commits a terrorist crime. Data collection techniques by conducting deep interviews, observation and documentation study. This research was conducted at the Juvenile Penitentiary Class I Tangerang (LPKA). The results of this study indicate that the profile picture of a child terrorist can be assessed based on the child's speaking style, behavior, motivation, beliefs, and experiences in the past. The main factor for a child committing a terrorist crime comes from the lack of figures and supervision from parents in their teens so that children look for other figures to be used as examples.

scholarly journals A Series of Astronomy Programs for Television in India

1990 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 342-345
Author(s):  
Jayant V. Narlikar
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Experimentation

Astronomy, unlike most other sciences, arouses great curiosity amongst laypeople. It is a subject that can be described relatively easily in public lectures. Distinguished astronomers like James Jeans and Arthur Eddington in the past and many more in recent times have “stooped down” to the public level to share the excitement of astronomical discoveries. Today, the popularization program normally proceeds in four different ways — through popular articles, public lectures, planetarium shows, and radio – TV programs. However, this overwhelming public interest in astronomy brings its own difficulties. Not all of it is motivated by a scientific interest! Many persons read mystic significance into astronomical findings. Many more are guided by astrological interest. Many fail to perceive the scientific basis for astronomy, a subject whose laboratory is the whole cosmos with objects too remote to be subject to scientific experimentation.

UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS: THE EVOLUTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Brighton
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Development Strategies ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPoverty and environmental degradation are two of the gravest issues facing the planet today. The most obvious means of addressing each issue, however, appears ostensibly to undermine the other. While environmental and development strategies are largely associated with the concept of sustainable development that emerged in the 1990s, the debate between these two interests dates back to the 1940s. This article seeks to fill an apparent gap in environmental scholarship by presenting a history of the environmental protection/development relationship. It will argue that, rather than being the product of an organic development process, the concept of sustainable development and the principles underlying it were consciously shaped by a number of international actors with vested interests in their trajectory. Understanding why and how this was permitted is important not only for its capacity to throw light on the past, but also for its ability to assist in understanding and predicting the future.

Teachers Unions and American Education Reform: The Politics of Blocking

The Forum ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry M. Moe
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
American Education ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Teachers Unions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Veto Points

Why has the modern era of American education reform been such a disappointment? Why has a nation so dedicated to improving its schools continually pulled up short, year after year, embracing weak reforms unsuited to the challenge and refusing to throw off the shackles of the past? The answer comes down to simple fundamentals that have long been staples of political science: vested interests, checks and balances. The vested interests in this case are the teachers unions, which are by far the most powerful groups in the politics of education. And their power is magnified by the American system of checks and balances—which, quite by design, creates veto points that make it exceedingly difficult for reformers to get major new legislation passed and correspondingly easy for opponents to block. The teachers unions have been masters of the politics of blocking for the past quarter century. Major reform is threatening to their vested interests in the existing system, and they have used their formidable power—leveraged by checks and balances—to repel, weaken, and render ineffective the efforts of reformers to bring real change. This is the basic story of the modern reform era. The rest is detail.

Time Orientation: Past, Present, and Future Perceptions

1989 ◽  
Vol 64 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1199-1205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard A. Jason ◽  
Jennifer Schade ◽  
Louise Furo ◽  
Arne Reichler ◽  
Clifford Brickman
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Time Orientation ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Future Expectations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Perceptions ◽  
Better Than

A survey was conducted to assess people's time orientation or where they spend most of their thinking time: past, present or future. 100 women were also asked about their expectations for the quality of life in 20 co 30 yr. and about the odds of a large-scale nuclear war within 30 yr. Respondents thought almost twice as much about the present and future as the past. They rated the quality of life in 20 to 30 yr. as being the same as or slightly better than now. A nuclear war within 30 yr. was considered possible; religious orientation had a strong effect. No significant relationship was found between time orientation and future expectations.

The Ecological Century

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Barton Worthington
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Tropics

The historical perspective is becoming ever more important in scientific research and development—especially in regions of rapid political and social change, such as former colonial empires, where the past is readily forgotten. Therefore this essay attempts to reconstruct the evolution of Ecology as the scientific basis for environmental conservation and human progress, as seen through the eyes of a biologist who has exercised that science during a number of tasks in various parts of the world over most of the twentieth century.From its beginnings in evolutionary thinking during the nineteenth century, ecology emerged from natural history at the beginning of the twentieth. At first the running was made by botanists; but this was soon followed by zoologists, who dealt with more mobile communities. The first quarter-century was mainly exploratory; the second was mainly descriptive (although biological exploration was still dominant in the tropics). The third quarter saw ecology developing into an experimental science, and, as the environmental revolution got into its stride, ecology became organized both nationally and internationally.Although the term is now often misused and sometimes misunderstood by laymen, the last quarter-century is seeing the wide application of ecology in environmental and human affairs, and this gives some assurance that the twenty-first century will not become one of chaos. The Author expresses the hope that experienced practising ecologists will in future give higher priority to applying what they already know than to learning more and more about less and less.

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